Certain products, such as beverage bottles, are often sold in basket-style carriers. Basket-style carriers are easy to lift and carry and are normally quite strong, their rigidity and resistance to deformation being aided by the divider partitions which conventionally extend from a center panel to the side panels to form individual cells for the bottles.
The strength of a basket-style carrier is of concern, however, in connection with the packaging of plastic bottles. Since contact between adjacent plastic bottles does not result in breakage, there is no need to separate the bottles with dividers. The amount of paperboard or other material required in the manufacture of the carriers is correspondingly reduced, resulting in a more economical carrier. When the carrier is designed to carry heavy loads, however, as may result from packaging large heavy bottles or large numbers of bottles, the lack of adequate carrier strength caused by the absence of the cell partitions is often revealed after a bottle is removed from the carrier. When one or more bottles are removed, the uneven weight distribution of the remaining bottles tends to cause the carrier to bow. This in turn causes the package to sag and can cause the remaining bottles to fall out when the carrier is lifted.
Carriers of this type are further weakened when the end panels are designed to permit the lower portions of the end bottles to be exposed to view. This is a desirable design when the shape of the bottles or other packaged articles is suggestive of the brand. However, it contributes to the lack of carrier strength, since removal of the lower portions of the end panels reduces the rigidity of the structure.
It is an object of the invention to provide a basket-style article carrier of the type which does not contain individual article cells, but which nevertheless provides adequate strength and resistance to bowing when one or more articles are removed. It is also an object to provide such a carrier with sufficient strength to permit lower portions of the end articles to be exposed to view.